Xavier Contel

Name: Xavier Contel

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: Grade 12

School: Aurora High

Hobbies and Interests: Anime, Video Games, Comics, Webcomics, Exercise, Costuming, Reading, Sewing

Appearance: Xavier Contel stands at five feet, eight inches and weighs in at 146 pounds. He has wild black hair that is perpetually greasy. His cheerful, oval-shaped face is pitted with acne scars since he often picks at the zits he gets. His chin is somewhat pointed, and he has high cheekbones, a fairly prominent nose, and energetic green eyes. He is very pale from spending most of his time indoors and is wiry from frequent exercise. He tends to wear clothes related to his interests—he owns every single T-shirt and hoodie from the web epic Homestuck, often wears a straw hat modeled after the Monkey D. Luffy wears in One Piece that he thatched himself, and always wears a pendant based on the miniature drill from Gurren Lagann. He also has a rather uncomfortable red coat modeled on that of Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist which he sewed himself. He tends to stand straight, run from place to place, and fidget a lot. On the day of his disappearance, he was wearing a Dave Strider T-Shirt, blue jeans, and his straw hat.

Biography: Born to happily-married parents Roger and Ellimere Contel in Seattle, Xavier has been an indoor kid for most of his life. He was a very clumsy child who often talked to himself and he ate his boogers and did not learn to tie his shoes until the age of nine. As such, he was often the subject of mockery from other children, and so became very reluctant to engage them. His father, a fairly athletic man who managed a local gym, tried to get him to participate in organized sports, but he often became distracted, paying little attention to events around him as he lost himself in his imagination. This earned him still more mockery from his peers, if only because he tended not to be a very useful player.

He found an ideal venue for his imaginative interests in his mother's Super Nintendo. It didn't require him to engage others and he got the opportunity to experience imaginary vistas as big as those in his head. He fell in love with Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI. Fascinated by these, he sought out similar games and then similar stories and scenarios in the form of books and comics. He received his first laptop at the age of 12 and discovered multiple sites for forum-based roleplay. From there, he became interested in roleplay in general

He found ways to occupy his time and make him feel a part of larger communities, but school remained a trial for him. His high metabolism kept him thin, but he was gawky and strange, and his interests continued to make him the subject of much mockery. He received excellent grades in English and history, but in scienc and math he struggled to maintain a C-average. He tended to avoid most extracurricular activities and to not stick around school any longer than he had to. The influence of teachers and parents prevented the worst of the bullying, but he was still something of a pariah. He tended to keep friends mostly in the online sphere.

Much of his trouble with his physical peers began to fade away with his first attendance of Emerald City Comic Con, which he arrived at dressed in a rough Robin costume he'd largely put together on his own. The sight of so many people like him, sharing his interests and so proud of it that they made themselves look like the characters they loved, gave him a sense of community and made him willing to assert himself against those who made fun of him. He attended conventions more frequently and became friends with many of those who regularly attended, and began to be very interested in costuming. As he became more proficient at sewing and other means of making clothes, he became involved in the theater department of Aurora, working backstage and in the costuming department, first on minor repairs and the putting together whole costumes on his own. The encouragement of both various members of Loyola's theater department and other repeat convention attendees allowed him to overcome his initial lack of confidence in his work and he has since become very good at constructing clothing and costume. He has become skilled enough at making costumes to make some money selling them to fellow cosplayers, most of which gets spent on comics, movies, games, and wooden weapons. When cosplaying, he tends to try and convincingly bring aspects of a character's appearance into the real world, rather than trying to make a costume that exactly mirrors the cartoon image.

His increased sense of community and his exposure to the world of costuming inspired Xavier with a strange idea. He came to believe that all that really separated him from the fictional characters he so loved, besides whatever supernatural powers they had acquired, was his desire to be like them. The idea took hold of him and would not let him go, and he eventually began to act to make himself more like those characters. His father, worried as always, had him see a psychologist. The psychologist did not find Xavier to be delusional. She concluded that while determined to modify the reality he inhabited as much as possible, he was still fundamentally grounded in reality, and able to distinguish real from fake.

As high school started, Xavier became more open with his interests and more invested in them. He tends to take inspiration in thought and behavior from the fictional characters he loves, and even to wear what bits and pieces of their costumes he can get away with by Aurora's dress code. He also began to train himself physically so he could more closely mirror the fictional characters he took so much inspiration from. He runs every day and spends at least twenty minutes a day in his basement “training” with various wooden weapons he's purchased using the money from the costume pieces he's sold. He has, however, eschewed organized sports or martial arts, as he finds their rules and rigorous discipline too constraining for his tastes.

His father remains generally uncomfortable with the way his son acts, but his mother has proven encouraging and helpful, and his father has somewhat relented now that Xavier's interests have resulted in him working out and becoming more active and engaged with his peers.

In general, Xavier has become more open with his interests and more courageous while engaging others. While he remains somewhat strange, he has managed to find a solid community of friends at Aurora, and has by and large escaped the scorn of his peers. He has decided to emulate the fictional characters he admires so much, in dress and in action, and in so doing to make his life a little more like the imaginary worlds he so loves to lose himself in.

Advantages: Xavier has a determined personality and is fairly fit. His costuming experience may be useful in protecting himself from the elements, since it will allow him to construct new clothes if those he has prove inadequate.

Disadvantages: Though basically grounded in reality, Xavier is very fixated on his various fictional inspirations, and so is likely fling himself into dangerous situations without much thought in spite of the fact he has no actual training whatsoever. A stressful survival situation may exacerbate these tendencies into a full-blown delusion.

Designated Number: Male student No. 046

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Designated Weapon: Arsenal Firearms AF2011-A1 Second Century

Conclusion: If only pretending to be a fictional character made it so, Mr. Contel. Then you could become someone who isn't a delusional wanker. - Penny Sullivan

'The above biography is as written by Grim Wolf. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by:  Grim Wolf

Kills: None

Killed By: Theodore Fletcher

Collected Weapons: Arsenal Firearms AF2011-A1 Second Century (designated weapon)

Allies: Arthur Wells 

Enemies: Theodore Fletcher 

Mid-game Evaluation: 

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Xavier, in chronological order.

V5:
 * Grey Skies, Grey Ground
 * The Usual Suspects
 * Calamity

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Xavier Contel. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * From the immediate start, Grim Wolf tested my abilities to google references to a variety of fandoms. Of the thirteen initial references I found in Xavier's opening post, I could probably only immediately recognize five. Does that make me a bad nerd? In any case, Xavier's writing had a clear focus on his love of anime and manga. I really enjoyed the chilling realization that a character's death in his favorite anime can be exciting, yet seeing Mr. Davidge's death was truly horrifying. Xavier spent his game being loud, excitable and ultimately very unequipped for the game. Xavier was conscious of how ill prepared he was, which made his shouting to allies very realistic. Xavier ultimately wanted to emulate one of these heroes, despite knowing the areas in which he clearly wasn't heroic. Although he'd lost out on a first attempt to befriend two friends, Xavier still kept up his plans. Ultimately, it would be this kindness that would lead him to being killed by v5's then largest killer. Ultimately, Xavier did have some charm in his character as he wrote, but I wish Grim could have done a few more things with the character. While he had a goal in mind, he was a bit directionless in approach. He'd died wanting to be a hero, yet left his friend behind to sleep, defenseless. I feel that Xavier had a few great strengths in the way his character was portrayed, he could have benefited from a stronger backbone of direction. -Shangela
 * A clear cut hero, or at least someone who genuinely did try to accomplish actual good, heroic things in his short time. Anti-heros/villains are cool too, but Xavier was a nice change of pace, and I'd like to see more of his type. The reference bits and the like made me squirm a bit reading him though. - Un-Persona
 * Xavier was and still is my favorite of Grim's V5 kids. He was fun, amusing, and provided a hero sort that we didn't really see elsewhere in V5. I'm pretty sad that he ended up dying when he did, since it feels like he got turned into fodder to get the escape group more guns, but his death was pretty excellent and in-character which I suppose is the best thing you can ask a death in SOTF to be. He was also the recipient of my favorite gun, so there's that. - backslash